Genre
The best Contemporary Fiction books
Honest reviews and recommendations for contemporary fiction readers.
5 reviews in this genre.
Editor's picks
Highest-rated contemporary fiction on the shelf
Normal People
by Sally Rooney
Normal People by Sally Rooney 2018 review. Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small Sligo town, attend Trinity College Dublin together, and orbit each other across four years of intermittent intimacy. The literary-fiction novel that defined the Rooney moment.
Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty 2014 review. Three mothers at an Australian elementary school converge on a kindergarten Trivia Night where someone will die. The contemporary domestic-suspense novel that defined the late-2010s book-club shelf.
Little Fires Everywhere
by Celeste Ng
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 2017 review. Two Shaker Heights families collide over the adoption of a Chinese-American baby. The novel that established Ng as one of the major contemporary literary fiction writers of her generation.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
by Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 review. An aging Hollywood icon agrees to tell the true story of her career and her seven marriages, but only to an unknown journalist. The TikTok-era literary fiction novel that defined contemporary Hollywood-memoir-fiction.
Wonder
by R. J. Palacio
Wonder by R. J. Palacio 2012 review. August Pullman, born with a facial difference, attends a mainstream school for the first time in fifth grade. The middle-grade novel that became required reading in U. S. school curricula across the late 2010s and 2020s.
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